Fighting Chance
by wvuchick21
Summary: Sequel to Not What You Need.  Takes place during the series finale but pretty much AU


_48 Hours Until Departure  
>Harm's Apartment<br>North of Union Station_

Two days. He only had two days to work things out with Mac. God, what could he manage in two days that he hadn't been able to figure out in nine years? This had to be the most irreversible screwed up relationship in the world.

All he could think about lately was what happened on the Virginia Shores months ago. Harm still kicked himself for not going after her and then later on, not bringing it up in conversation. Not that they had many over the course of the last few months. Those actually speaking to each other in an adult conversation were few and far between.

And then he pushed her away in the hospital. All Mac was doing was comforting him. But it was as if her hand burned his back when she touched him. He couldn't take it. She had pushed him away months ago; it was only natural that he did the same. And her comforting him during Mattie's hospitalization made it more real than it already was.

Now they were being sent to different ends of the earth. Six thousand miles apart. How would either of them survive? Yes, for awhile there, even with their offices right beside each other, they had problems communicating. But it was the simple thought of them being right there if the time ever came for them to need each other once more.

Harm threw the last of his t-shirts in the suitcase in a fit of frustration. He didn't want to leave things this way between them. Didn't want to leave with their friendship in the worst shape that it's ever been over the years. He certainly didn't want to leave without telling Mac that he loved her. Not that those three words would change anything. Sure, Mac probably has been waiting for them for years; since Sydney Harbor actually. But, surely it wouldn't change her mind enough to consider being with him in London or vice versa. Right now, Harm would give up everything in his life just be with Mac.

He loved his _Navy_ career. No doubt about that. He loved Sarah MacKenzie. At the moment, that was enough for him.

Harm happened to glance up at this dresser and his gaze fell upon the picture of him and Mac with little AJ at his christening. It was one of his favorites of him and Mac together. Just looking at it though made his heart ache. Mac might never be able to experience having a child of her own. She had a four percent window of opportunity. In his mind's eye, she might as well have zero percent. But, at least she has a chance. Just might take longer than usual to conceive.

Nausea clawed its way to his throat. If Mac were to walk away from him and make a life for herself in San Diego, she would most likely meet someone and carry their child; if possible. He just couldn't envision Mac pregnant with someone's child other than his own. He wanted Mac to be the mother of his children. He wanted to wake in the early morning light and see Mac's beautiful face on the pillow next to him. He dreamed of that for the last couple years. For once in his life, he wanted one single dream to come true. He wanted that particular one to come true for the rest of his days.

Without thinking about it, he stopped packing, grabbed his jacket and keys. He would try to make Mac understand that they belonged together. Even if it meant proving it to her with six thousand miles separating them.

* * *

><p><em>Twenty Minutes Later<br>Mac's Apartment  
>Georgetown<br>_  
>Mac carefully wrapped the last plate and placed in the designated box. Well, ten boxes down only a couple dozen more to go. Why did packing have to be so depressing? Maybe it was the fact that she was leaving the only place she truly called home. Or maybe it was the thought of being away from Harm.<p>

She might've told him all those months ago on the Virginia Shores that she wasn't what he needed, but she would take all that back if it meant they wouldn't be separated. In all the years that they've been partners, that might've been the most stupid thing she said to him. It was right up there with the _Never_ statement from Paraguay. Harm was the master of _inserting foot in mouth, _but Mac had her moments as well. And she still kicked herself for those said moments.

As she taped up the box marked _Kitchen Essentials_, a sharp knock sounded on her door. Mac finished her task quickly then answered the door.

Much to her surprise it was Harm on the other side. Though her subconscious hated to admit it, he was the last person she thought she'd see.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Mac thought small talk would help ease the tension that suddenly entered the apartment.

Harm entered the apartment when she moved in an invitation. "Fine. How about you?"

"Good. Whatcha need?"

"I've got a question for you."

"Shoot." Mac started packing another box. Might as well do something productive while conversing with Harm.

"What are you doing about your apartment?" Okay, that question came out of left field. Definitely not what he wanted to ask her.

What the hell kind of question is that? "I'm subletting. Remember Varese?"

Ah, yes, the woman that Sturgis was dating. "Turner was seeing her, right?"

At least Harm remembered something about Sturgis before they started hating each other's guts, Mac thought. "Still is. She's booked at a local club for quite some time and decided to try it out, living in the same area. Who knows what might develop?"

"Well, I tried to offer the loft to Jen, but she turned it down."

"Can't blame her. I wouldn't want to live in a place where my best friend tried to kill me." Mac grew silent as she got at least half the box she was working on, packed. Silence was killing her, so she spoke up, "Is that all you came over here for? Just to ask me what I was doing with my apartment?"

Okay, he had nothing to lose. Either he could get through to her or he couldn't. "Actually, no, that wasn't the main reason."

"Well..." Mac didn't say any more, wishing...no hoping Harm would fill everything in soon. Real soon.

Harm wanted to say those words, but his voice decided not to work at that exact moment. Just his luck. He was always better expressing his feelings with action rather than words. Hell, actions did speak louder than words.

Much to Mac's surprise and Harm's, he caught her arm, hauled her to him; her soft body slamming against his muscular one; and kissed the living daylights out of her. Her mouth opened underneath his, allowing him entrance. When their tongues first touched it was as if they touched a live wire. Sure, they've kissed before, but neither of their previous kisses was like this. Neither one of them was saying goodbye.

Mac's hands weren't idle. They clawed at his back, pulling his shirt up and plunging beneath the material. His skin was heated and having her fingers on it only added to the fire. As their tongues dueled, her hands had a mind of their own. They dropped from beneath Harm's shirt and traveled to the front, landing on the buckle of his belt. They toyed with it for a mere second before unbuckling the belt and undoing Harm's jeans.

He felt his pants loosen but wondered why. He surely didn't lose his erection. It was painfully hard and still pressing against Mac's thigh. Then he heard the distinct sound of a zipper being lowered and it finally dawned on him.

He pulled back from her, his breathing ragged. "Mac, what are you doing?"

_Don't let him back down, MacKenzie. He started it and you're both going to finish it._ "I've waited nine years for this moment, Harm. Hell, I've waited months for you to come running after me since I walked away from you on the Virginia shoreline."

He breathed, "Mac..."

Her voice was a soft whisper, "What took you so long, Sailor?" Mac took the opening and slipped her hand inside his opened jeans and grasped his cock through the material of his boxers.

Harm gasped at the contact. The mere touch of her hand on him with a thin layer of clothing separating skin on skin almost had his head exploding. Imagine what it would feel like with her hand actually touching him. Even the thought had Harm hardening even more.

Mac felt him harden a bit more and a rush of feminine pride coursed through her. She had always known that she had a hold over Harm. But to actually witness it was something more.

He had to touch her. He had to touch her or he would die.

Harm practically ripped her shirt off and then lost his breath at the first sight of her beautiful breasts encased in the rather revealing bra. Black lace. He had to know if there were matching panties to go along with it. When he started to unbutton her jeans, his fingers became all thumbs. He never had any problems getting a woman naked before. Then again, those other women weren't Sarah MacKenzie. This was Mac. This was the woman who he gave his heart to the first moment they met.

Mac noticed his predicament and bless her soul, decided to help him. She unbuttoned her jeans with ease, slid the zipper down teasingly and then slid them down her long legs.

He could now say that he'd never seen a woman more beautiful than the one standing in front of him. The soft light from the lamp gave her skin a bronzed look and he just couldn't wait to run his hands over every curve and valley. When she looked at him with her coffee eyes, he was certain that look mirrored the one in his own.

"Are you gonna just stand there and look or are you gonna touch?" There was a twinkle in her eye.

A deep laugh came from Harm.

Her hands went to her hips as she did her defiant stance. "Care to share with the class, Captain?"

"I thought we could move this into the bedroom."

"What don't you like the current surroundings?" She swept her arm around the living room, cluttered with boxes.

"Moving this party into the bedroom would make it more romantic."

Mac raised her eyebrows at him. "Honey, you finally letting go tonight is all the romance I need." She sauntered to the bedroom before looking over her shoulder at him. The look Mac gave Harm would've made a sixteen year old boy blush.

He didn't waste any time getting himself into the bedroom.

The sight that waited for him blew him away the moment he entered. Mac sprawled on her bed just waiting for Harm to crawl up her body. It would've been a bit sexier if she was in his bed, but he wasn't going to think about that image until later. Much later when he was six thousand miles away from her. He was focused on the here and now.

It became obvious to Harm that she was not going to help him undress. No, she was going to watch him.

Harm always knew when Mac's eyes were on him. It was like a sixth sense with the two of them. Before, it never rattled him.

Now, he was a bit nervous. It was bad enough that Mac was already undressing him with her eyes. Harm slowly pulled his shirt off. He snuck a peek at Mac and groaned when her tongue ran across her lips in appreciation. Next came his pants and then he toed off his shoes. He went two steps before Mac stopped him with her hand.

"The boxers too."

He gulped before slipping the garment off and he kicked it towards his pants.

"Very impressive, Captain." Very impressive, indeed.

Harm found it quite arousing when she called him by his rank. That sultry, throaty voice that she often used through the years when things got serious between them. He lay down on the bed beside her and started his caresses. His hand moved from her collarbone, skirted across the tops of her breasts then skipped down to her taut abdomen. It just the lightest touch he could do and it had Mac breathing a bit heavier.

His fingers danced around the edge of her panties, slipping underneath the waistband just to tease before venturing back to safe territory.

"Harm, it's not nice to tease a Marine," she breathed.

He chuckled, "I would never dream of teasing you, Mac."

With that last statement, he torturously slipped her panties off her body and threw them over his shoulder, not caring where they landed. All of him was focused on Mac. God, she was beautiful. He could not take his eyes off of her. No words exited his mouth. All he could do was stare at her.

Mac's body felt as if it was on fire from Harm's gaze. The man didn't even have to touch her to get her riled up. Each passing second, she found it harder to breathe. Out of all the men she had relationships with in her life, neither one of them took the time to take in her beauty. Neither one of those men basked in the intimacy.

After this night, she would make Harm understand that they belonged together and that she had made a mistake all those months ago on the Virginia Shores. Come hell or high water, she would get her man. Mac reached out a shaky hand and laid it on his thigh. "Harm."

His thigh jumped beneath her hand at the soft touch. Embarrassed that he'd been caught doing something inappropriate; Harm couldn't meet Mac's eyes.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Her hand on his cheek seemed to ease his mind.

The teasing from earlier was immediately sidelined to make way for the _deep_ conversation that both of them knew would emerge any second. "God, Mac, I don't want to screw this up." He groaned loudly and lowered his head, "I'm already screwing this up with my stupid whining."

Her soft laughter was her only answer.

"Mac, this really isn't funny. I don't want this night to be unspectacular with absolutely no fireworks. And I definitely don't want you to gossip to your new female coworkers about how the _Navy_ isn't good between the sheets. Especially a _Navy_ fighter pilot."

Mac couldn't help herself again. She outright laughed in Harm's face.

Harm breathed deeply, "Marine, you're not helping with my anxiety."

"Harm, I'm not laughing directly at _you_. I'm laughing at what you were saying." She made him look at her. "First of all, you're not screwing anything up right now. In fact, you were doing everything exceptionally well. Secondly, I don't doubt this night will be nothing but spectacular with numerous fireworks. And lastly, I don't gossip about my love life. So you have nothing to worry about." Her fingers combed through his hair. "By the way, I would love more than one night with you"

Who would've guessed that the two of them would be having the _biggest_ conversation in their lives, naked and in Mac's bed? Harm definitely would've laughed at the person who had suggested it. He gave her his signature smile. For a brief second he didn't know what to say. _Yes, folks, Harmon Rabb had been rendered speechless._

"Hey, whatcha thinking?"

"I'm thinking about how I want more than just your nights. I want your whole day, Mac." He took a breath, praying that his voice didn't shake, "I want everything with you. Marriage and family."

The only response he got from Mac was tears tracking down her cheeks.

_Great, Rabb, you scared her shitless. Or you made her cry because she __doesn't want those things with you. _"Mac?"

Mac didn't trust her voice so she captured Harm's mouth in a searing kiss. Her tongue plunged into his mouth, tangling with his. She put her whole soul and all the emotion in her body into that one kiss, hoping Harm would feel everything.

He buried his fingers in her long tresses and draped his solid body over her soft, supple one.

A long breathy gasp entered his mouth via Mac when his arousal pressed hard into her belly, dangerously close to where she wanted it. Where they both  
>wanted it. Her legs tangled with his and she seductively rubbed his calf with her foot. With one final swipe of her tongue, she broke the kiss. "Harm, I love<br>you."

_Thank you, God!  
><em>  
>"I love you, too, Mac."<p>

Knowing what he was truly thinking in that head of his, she simply stated, "Harm, I don't need perfection. Just being with you is special enough for me. I just need you. Only you."

Mac scooted up the bed a bit, putting his cock right where she wanted it, hovering outside the entrance to paradise. She wrapped her legs around his waist, urged him forward with her feet on his calves. Harm couldn't breathe as he slowly entered her. Her muscles clenched him tightly and he knew that he wouldn't last very long.

"Mac, baby, this isn't going to last long," he groaned in her neck.

_Baby._ God, that sounded so good coming from his lips. "I know, because I'm close," she whispered.

Slow and steady thrusts soon turned to fast and hard.

With Mac breathing in his ear to go faster, Harm lost control.

He only hoped that he didn't hurt her. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he hurt her while making love. He slipped his free hand between their joined bodies and circled her clit. Mac's body stiffened, her muscles squeezed tight around his aching cock, and she screamed his name. Once her climax died down, Harm slammed into her body once, twice, three, four times before he emptied what seem like his soul, into her welcoming body.

Mindful of his weight, he eased himself down beside her and gathered Mac in his arms.

* * *

><p>Harm's hand lazily trailed up and down Mac's spine. "I saw Mattie earlier."<p>

"Yeah? Did you tell her?"

"Yeah."

Mac combed her fingers through his chest hair, "And she told you go, didn't she?"

He laughed, "Yes, she did." He paused before continuing, "I love her, Mac. She's going to be part of my life."

"I know, Harm. I love Mattie too and I'm glad that she has someone like you in her life. She needs you and your support in her situation." She raised her head to look into his eyes. "Don't think you're getting rid of me that easily because you're adopting a teenage girl."

His lips curved up in a smile. A smile in the past hour that she had found out was his bedroom smile and was just for her alone.

"I know you _Marines_ don't scare easy."

"No, we don't. You should know that by now." Mac circled one of his nipples with her finger. "Harm, about what I said to you at the Virginia  
>Shores..."<p>

Harm silenced the rest of her words with a single finger. "It doesn't matter to me anymore, Mac. I got what I've dreamed of the last nine years. I got you, Sarah MacKenzie."

She whispered, "Yeah, you did."

His finger traced her soft cheekbone. "I want you to be my wife."

_Wife? Did Harm just propose marriage to her? _She had to be dreaming. Surely Harmon Rabb didn't take the first step. All it took to put her mind at ease was one look in his beautiful eyes. "What about our careers?"

_Ah, yes, the inevitable nail in the coffin._ "I don't know, Mac."

"I don't want to be back where we've always been." She sat up, clutching the sheet to her bare breasts, suddenly feeling very exposed.

Harm gently touched her bare back and she inched away from his burning touch. "Mac, please don't shut me out."

Her shoulder slumped, "I'm not shutting you out, Harm. I'm just..." Her fist suddenly thumped the bed. "God, I'm just so frustrated!"

"Mac?"

Harm was not going to give up his _Navy_ career without a fight and neither was she. The _Marines_ were everything to her. But in the past year, the most important thing wasn't her career. It turned out to be the simplest thing in life. A family. Yet, that family would need desperate help from the medical field. She had a four percent chance to conceive a child. At first, she should've been given a zero chance. But after Christmas Eve, she immediately latched onto that four percent. It might've slim to none, but it was still a chance.

Mac turned around to face Harm, who was now sitting against the headboard. "I love the _Marines_, Harm."

"I know."

"And you love the _Navy_."

"Yeah." _Where was she going with this twenty questions sideshow?_

He wasn't getting the point that she was trying to make. "Do you still want a family?"

"Of course."

She straddled his outstretch legs. "I'm willing to give up my career to try for our family."

"No, no. I'm not going to let you do that." He shook his head. He didn't want her to hate him in the coming years for making her give everything up.

Her hands on his face stopped his shaking head. "Hey, it's my decision. I'm okay with it. I want a family, Harm, with you. I want your children. It'll be a little hard trying for a family while running a command. I'm okay knowing I'll never be the first female JAG. But at least, maybe someday, one of us will be the next JAG. Never in a million years will I hate you for this decision. It's mine and mine alone. I love you, Harmon Rabb. That's all that matters to me."

He wiped away the few tears that escaped from her eyes during her confession. "So, back to my earlier question, will you be my wife?"

A radiant smile graced her face, "Yes."

The one word answer was enough for Harm. He didn't need any more. The look in her eyes told him the rest.

* * *

><p><em>July 2010<br>La Jolla, CA  
>Burnett Residence<em>

Who ever thought that after the train wreck on the Virginia Shores five years ago, Sarah Rabb would be watching her four percent miracle playing with her father in her in-law's yard? Certainly not Mac. A bubbling laughter filtered through the yard and settled on Mac. It was her daughter's laugh. It was also her husband's laugh. Like father, like daughter.

Elizabeth Morgan Rabb was her father.

And she was definitely a handful like her father.

But to her mother, she was a miracle baby.

After the night in Mac's apartment, she called General Creswell the next day, informing him that she was turning down the position in San Diego and resigning her commission. Much to her surprise, Creswell wasn't the less bit surprised at her actions.

He wished her and Harm happiness and told Mac she would be missed in the _Marines_.

Harm shipped out to London and she stayed behind with Mattie until she was able to travel. Once all three of them met up, Mac started right away into making the house a home and the three of them a family.

Things got a little rough when Harm and Mac started trying for a baby and kept coming up short. She wanted it so much and each time she got her period or the pregnancy test was negative, she became more depressed. Mac truly thought it would never happen. She was never going to have a child of her own.

Then it happened when they least expected it.

She was pregnant. Throughout the whole pregnancy both Harm and the doctor watched her with hawk eyes.

But it was worth it because nine months later, they were parents to a beautiful little girl. One who had her daddy wrapped around her finger at first sight. Now, she was three years old and quite the handful. Even Mattie got tired chasing the _little terror_ around, she often called Beth. But Mattie adored her little sister.

Recently Harm got some leave and they decided to visit his parents. They hardly ever got to see Beth, with the family being stationed in London. And what made it more memorable was that Mattie and Chloe were both there. They had summer hiatus from college; Mattie from _VA Tech_ and Chloe from _Georgetown_.

A gentle hand settled on Mac's shoulder and turned to find Trish, her mother-in-law.

"Having fun watching the two of them?"

"It's my favorite past time." Mac laughed at Harm chasing Beth around and her squealing when Mattie and Chloe got in on the chase.

"She's just like Harm when he was that age. It still amazes me of how much she's like her father."

"Yeah, it's as if I wasn't there when she was made."

Trish chuckled at Mac's statement. "Darling, do you ever regret leaving the service?"

Mac pondered Trish's question for a brief second. "No, I don't. For most of my life, my life revolved around the Marines but as time went on, my priorities changed. I'm glad for my time in the service, but now my life revolves around being a mother." There was silence until Mac spoke up again, "What I'm most proud of is that I gave Harm and I a fighting chance. He could've walked away from me after the incident at the Virginia Shores, but he didn't. He believed in us. And I'm glad that he made me believe in us as well, because look at everything we have together."

The two women looked out into the yard at the people they loved the most. "I couldn't have asked for anything more.

* * *

><p><em>The End<em>


End file.
